Peace In Your Life - Have you Found It?

It’s a yes or no question.
Either you have or have not found peace.

Only you know and there is no way you can fool yourself forever. The sooner you get settled on what you are looking for in your life, the sooner you can begin to really live - at peace and energized.

It's been said there’s a God-shaped hole inside everyone.
You can try to fill it with many things to satisfy yourself and bring you happiness and peace. 

Some try MATERIAL THINGS
They race around collecting cars, houses, boats, clothes and that old faithful—good old cash. They keep a close eye on their stocks. They always know how the market is doing. They love showing their things off to others. You can tell from their conversation that they never stop thinking about what they just bought or are getting ready to buy.

Others go in the direction of RELATIONSHIPS
They put their focus on family and friends - the more the merrier! They have their entire lives built around doing things for and with their family and friends. They can even get self-righteous about it, telling others over and over that nothing is more important than family with the emphasis on how great their’s is.

Another approach is ACTIVITIES
They love going places, doing things - chasing their “bucket list.” The idea being that the more things they have done, the wider the variety, the more unique they are the greater the enjoyment and satisfaction they will have in life. It’s easy to feel like you have never been anywhere or done anything in your life when you talk to them. Anything you mention, they have been there or done that. Super Bowl, World Series, Hawaii, Europe, cruises, skydiving, bungee jumping…there’s no end.

Another widely popular approach is SELF-DEVELOPMENT.
People furiously chase physical fitness. They pursue education. They are always seeking new knowledge, new levels of personal achievement and new challenges. If you get one degree, then go get another. The idea behind this is that the more you develop yourself the more you will be at peace with yourself. Education is the answer to everything.

I’m not criticizing at all! All of these things are valid activities.
They all can add qualities to your life you would not have any other way. They all add value and enjoyment. They keep you active, stimulated and involved with other people in positive ways. In fact, if you have the interest and ability, these are all things you should do. They’ll expand your life and give you a lot enjoyment and satisfaction.

But many realize the satisfaction from these things is only temporary
If you have pursued  many of these and are still unsettled inside, still looking for real peace, maybe its time to look in another direction. Maybe it’s that God shaped vacuum that hasn’t been filled yet. 

There is another long standing choice.
It's one you should not ignore. Its one you need to evaluate for yourself because this is one area that’s too important to trust to other’s judgement. If you do you’ll understand why for over 2000 years millions of people from all over the world have found that their answer for peace has been found in the Prince of Peace. He’s the one who said…

I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. (John 14:27)

If you haven’t found peace yet, find out about the Lord Jesus Christ.  When you do you’ll learn why only he offers the “peace that passes all understanding."

The Big Education Lie

Parents fall for this lie every time. 

Society convinces every new generation of families that education is the #1 solution for all of their kids problems and so they set their priorities accordingly. They believe the overwhelming key for their kids to have a great, stable and successful life is education!

Education, Education, Education! Above all things get educated and you’ll be set for life. 

Education is the key. Go to school, do your homework, get your diploma and the job is done preparing you for life as a responsible, productive, independent adult.

The truth is…NO IT'S NOT!

Millions of highly educated people, young and old, have plunged their lives into disaster by poor choices. 

You want examples? They are everywhere in all countries and all walks is life and more new ones show up on the news everyday. 

Bernie Madoff ripping off thousands of trusting investors- even his own relatives, Tiger Woods at the peak of fulfillment in live throwing it all away for a little extra forbidden pleasure, brokers on Wall Street snorting cocaine, Enron executives building a global company on total fraud and deceit, T.V. evangelists caught with prostitutes, female high school teachers running off with 13 year old boys…do I really need to add anymore?

It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with it. The source of all these disasters is lack of values and character. These must be taught. 

No two year old is going to have their first words be “yes ma’am” or “yes sir.” When they hit the Earth and gain consciousness, sight, mobility, and the ability to speak, they go right to work trying to organize the world for their benefit. 

The first word many babies say—announcing their presence in the world is…”NO!” They are totally self-centered, and why shouldn’t they be? They’re not independent yet and need others to take care of them.

It’s all about them. That changes when you go out into the real world. Now you’re supposed to be independent and take care of yourself. Jobs, marriage, and having children demand that you focus on doing things for others. Without character and values you can’t resist the temptations to take short cuts for extra pleasure, extra money, and extra glory. And you’ll do it even if it involves breaking laws, breaking confidences, or destroying relationships.

Kids need to be taught right from wrong. Kids need be taught respect for authority. They need to be taught respect for others. This isn’t going to happen by itself, and if it isn’t done it won’t matter what education they have. They will have knowledge but they won’t have a foundation. You can build a building but without a firm foundation, it’s just a matter of time before it crumbles.

Make sure your kids get a great education but also make sure they have a firm foundation of values and character to stand on as they go through life.  

Question: How about you? Do you know any very smart people who have done some very dumb things?

Spiritual Education

Missing the point?

We’re educating our kids like crazy. We’re running them off to sporting events like crazy. We have them in extracurricular activities like crazy.

But are we missing the single most important thing? That would be getting them a firm spiritual foundation and personal knowledge of God’s word, the Bible.

Without a firm foundation, are we setting our kids up for failure?

Every skill, every piece of knowledge, every degree you obtain is no good unless it is used correctly. 

Without a firm spiritual foundation, a firm moral/ethical foundation base on which to make decisions, how can we expect the next generation to make ethical, moral, valid, reasonable, logical, solid, long-lasting, correct decisions? We can’t.

We are leaving them vulnerable to making bad choices and coming under the influence of those who don’t have their best interests at heart. Without ethics, without morals, who’s to say what is right and what is wrong? It's a mistake to just blithely assume they will make the right decisions. As it says in the Bible, the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. 

We are able to rationalize just about any decision in any form of behavior. And if you have trouble coming up with that rationalization yourself, there’s plenty of people out there that can give you perfectly logical “sounding” reasons to do the most illogical, immoral things in your life.

Without a firm foundation, how are you going to stand? 

The Bible talks about the fool who built his house on shifting sand and when the rains, the winds, the storm came, it came crashing down. Are we making that same mistake with our children? Are we making that same mistake with ourselves? That’s for you to decide. 

That’s an area of freedom of choice; you can decide that issue for yourself. Unfortunately those decisions have consequences.

Anyone who neglects to provide spiritual education for their children may reap a whirlwind of disappointment down the road.